Nigel Kennedy abused the Proms with remarks about Israel 'apartheid’

The BBC are planning to cut the comments from their broadcast of the
performance

SIR – I cannot be the only one who has had more than enough of artists hijacking events to make political points. It is sheer bad manners to abuse a captive audience in this way.

Nigel Kennedy, the latest offender (Letters, August 22), is now known more for his relentless self-promotion and funny clothes than he is for his undoubted musical talent.

The BBC is absolutely right to cut his pro-Palestinian posturing from the television broadcast and, furthermore, should now consider whether he can ever be asked back. After all, party guests who misbehave soon find their invitations drying up.

David Kemp Glasgow

SIR – If I purchase a seat at the BBC Proms I expect to hear Nigel Kennedy performing the music, not to be treated to his political views.

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There are a myriad of political forums in this country at which he can hold forth. The BBC is in order to redact his comments from its broadcast.

When I next purchase a ticket for the Proms I will request an assurance that I will not be treated to the performer’s political views. No assurance, no purchase.

Nigel Kennedy would be well advised to appreciate that there are many world-class violinists who would be delighted to perform at the Proms. He is not that unique.

Alfred Allenstein Barnet, Hertfordshire

SIR – I am confused as to what Nigel Kennedy and the other misguided luvvies consider “apartheid” in Israel.

Surely apartheid is the building of a state which bans any group of people from taking part in that state – for example, the Palestinians’ stated aim of having their own state with no Jews in it.

The state of Israel does not fit that description, regardless of how many times the lie is repeated. Israel has Arab members of its Knesset – some of whom are dedicated to the destruction of Israel. (Just imagine that in any Arab country.)

African refugees risk their lives to travel across Muslim countries just to get to Israel. Syrian children are being treated in Israeli hospitals – how much media coverage did that get? There is an Arab on the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice.

SIR – I note with dismay that more than one in 10 prosecutions last year were for non-payment of the BBC licence fee (report, August 22).

We live next door to a huge church tower and consequently receive no terrestrial reception whatever. In order to watch any channel we have to fork out a small fortune to Mr Murdoch for Sky. Once I came to terms with that I was appalled to learn that I still had to pay a full fee to the BBC.

I have toyed with a non-payment protest but can ill afford a criminal record or, for that matter, the large fine.

It is absurd to waste public money and court time on subsidising a broadcasting organisation in this day and age.

Rev Jamie Taylor Sonning, Berkshire

SIR – Most people think the BBC licence fee is a regressive tax. The Government expects all households to have access to television for its many public-education campaigns.

Much of the licence fee is squandered in the cost of collection and beating up people who cannot afford to pay.

The solution lies in the BBC licence fee being collected by local authorities through the community charge. It would be a much more effective, compassionate and cost-effective method of tax collection and clear the courts of pointless and cruel prosecutions.

Don Edwards Manningtree, Essex

Patient confidentiality

SIR – It is not true that “Jeremy Hunt plans sale of confidential medical data to private firms” (report, August 22). Not only is it illegal to sell or distribute identifiable patient data, it is in breach of one of our core values as a society: that patient confidentiality is a basic human right.

The truth is that NHS England is to make more widely available safe, anonymous data from general practice so that clinicians and their commissioners can target improvements in care, and so that the quality of local services has more transparency for patients.

This new data service – care.data – which is to be launched later this year, will also be available free of charge to all citizens. No third party will have access to identifiable data (other than under specific legal exemptions approved by Parliament, such as a national public health emergency).

Every patient will have the right to object to data held by their GP being used for this purpose and for that objection to be upheld.

Tim Kelsey National Director for Patients and Information, NHS England Leeds, West Yorkshire

Impact of wind farms

SIR – My department is not blocking a Defra report on the impact of wind farms (Leading article, August 21).

The Government is committed to moving to a secure, affordable, low-carbon energy system, without excessively relying on any single technology.

So this cross-government study will look at maximising benefits and minimising negative impacts of all technologies, including shale gas and nuclear.

Edward Davey MP (Lib Dem) Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change London SW1

SIR – To placate, pacify, or equally annoy both sides in the now hysterical fracking debate, why not add a wind turbine to the top of each well-head?

Dr Ken Harvey Brecon

Value of juries

SIR – It was disappointing to read Christopher Thompson’s letter on jury service (Letters, August 21), but I fear many will agree with him. While trial by jury is not the most efficient way of ascertaining the truth of an allegation, its value – as evidence that we live in a free society and that the state cannot imprison those it accuses of crime without formal sanction after due consideration by 12 members of the public – is surely beyond question.

Thus doing jury service is not as Mr Thompson suggests “largely pointless” – it is a duty which must be done if we are to continue the life we lead in this country.

It is arguable that too many cases that do not merit the attention of judge and jury find their way to the Crown Court. Jurors often wonder why they have been asked to sit in judgment with regard to sometimes obviously trivial cases.

It may also be that too many are summoned for service, which results in long periods of inactivity and frustration.

These are matters that can be put right by Parliament and the administrators of our Crown Courts. That done, I hope, on reflection, that Mr Thompson and his supporters will change their minds.

His Honour Judge Philip Shorrock

Woolwich Crown Court

London SE28

Spending 100 pennies

SIR – Before using the facilities at a betting shop (Letters, August 22), place a £1 bet on any horse in the next race. When you return you could be in profit. But win or lose it will have been a pound well spent if you are desperate.

Roger Flack Cambridge

SIR – In France this year my wife and I found that the McDonald’s we visited had a keypad lock on the door leading to the lavatory. A table-cleaner, noticing our uncertainty, showed us the key code on our receipt. Apparently it is changed each hour.

Greg Hayward Wimborne, Dorset

Tracey Emin as model

SIR – If Marks and Spencer puts the right clothes in the shops, they will fly off the shelves. The wrong clothes will stick, whether Tracey Emin (report, August 19) is paid to wear them or not.

What a strange choice she is as a model. Do we have to get very drunk to shop?

Liz Wheeldon Seaton, Devon

Tudors wanted Richard forgotten – in Leicester

SIR – Richard II’s remains were moved from King’s Langley to Westminster Abbey. Richard III himself had the corpse of Henry VI moved from Chertsey Abbey to St George’s, Windsor. The Tudors never moved Richard III. They wanted him forgotten – in Leicester.

With the possible exception of Edward V, every king of England has been buried in one of our great cathedrals or abbeys – such as Worcester, Gloucester, Canterbury, Westminster – or at Windsor.

York Minster is fit for a king, especially one with strong northern connections. Leicester Cathedral is not comparable in status.

Jillian Ann Cole Wilton, Wiltshire

SIR – I too am a descendant of Edward IV, via his daughter Elizabeth of York and her marriage to Henry Tudor.

Would the Queen consider allowing Richard III’s remains to be interred in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where his brother, Edward, lies?

Elizabeth Bembridge Kingsdown, Kent

SIR – Might I suggest Eastwell churchyard near Ashford, Kent?

Richard would then be reunited with his son, Richard Plantagenet, in peaceful surroundings without hundreds of tourists trampling over him.